Last week on this blog, Carter did that voodoo he does so well: attack tax-and-spend Democrats.His target was Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker

Here was the money punch:

“From 1992 to 2001, under Republican mayors, Raleigh never raised property taxes. Now, under Mayor Meeker we are staring at the second tax increase in three years. What’s driving all these tax increases?

“Well, in Raleigh, city government has gone on an unbridled spending spree. Under Mayor Meeker the City Council is spending money like there is no tomorrow.”

Look like an elitist who cares only about downtown and sneers at the suburbs;

Spend millions of taxpayers’ dollars on projects that look like foolish follies in a 30-second ad – let alone a close examination.

Spend the money on projects like a $20 million subsidy to the Marriot family to build a downtown hotel, a billion-dollar rail system that even the federal government won’t fund and ever-rising costs for the convention center and parking deck.

Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of Raleigh Democrats want to go.

Democrats should never lose a Raleigh election.Fifty percent of the voters are registered Democrats, and only 35 percent are Republicans.

That’s why John Odom’s at-large campaign flopped last year.He ran a turn-out-the-base campaign.But turnout campaigns don’t work when you’ve got only 35 percent of the vote.

Democrats are just as clueless if they think voter registration – and impact fees – are the automatic keys to City Hall.

Private polls last year showed unease about the Mayor’s spending policies.Fortunately, Meeker didn’t have an opponent who could take advantage.

One comment on “Outfoxing the Tax-and-Spend Dog”

It’s not even close to the same thing, and wouldn’t be considered so in the public mind if prominent commentators didn’t keep spouting the Locke Foundation’s biased propoganda as gospel.

I’ve looked at the numbers. The light rail project is needed, or we’re toast. If we don’t find a way to guide development into corridors instead of letting the city continue to spread like a mold colony, we’re in BIG trouble.

And don’t come back to me with $ per rider and demands that the system be profitable. Public transportation is not and never has been a profit center. Neither is public mental health care. Neither are jails. These are things the people provide for themselves through their government because they are necessary – ESPECIALLY in urban areas. And, guess what, the Triangle is and always will be, forevermore, an urban area.